According to the New York Post, the controversial islands owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will soon be turned into a resort. The Caribbean real estate known colloquially as “Paedophile Islands” is one of the locations where Epstein allegedly held sex parties. According to Forbes, billionaire Stephen Deckoff, founder of private equity firm Black Diamond Capital Management, purchased the islands for $60 million in May 2023. The outlet said that Great St. James and Little St. James were on the market for more than a year.
The island resort will open in 2025
According to The Post, the island resort will open in 2025. They were initially listed for $125 million in 2021, with the majority of the proceeds going toward Epstein’s victims’ compensation.
According to Mr. Deckoff, the resort will have 25 rooms. The property encompasses more than 230 acres, with 70 acres in Little St. James and 160 acres in Great St. James. It is located just off the coast of the popular tourist destination of St. Thomas and already has a helipad, multiple pools, and several guest villas.
“I very much look forward to working with the US Virgin Islands to make this dream a reality,” the billionaire said after the transaction was widely publicized.
The ownership of Epstein had cast a dark shadow over the islands. The disgraced financier paid $8 million for them in 1998. Several women have come forward since his death, alleging that they were trafficked to the islands and abused.
When a New York judge unsealed Epstein-related documents, their accounts were revealed. Former US presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, who have not been accused of any wrongdoing in the case, provided the documents, which include nearly 1,000 pages of depositions and statements.
The disclosure is part of a defamation case involving Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022, and a plaintiff against the duo, Virginia Giuffre.
Epstein, a financier with a large network in the United States and abroad, was accused of raping young girls, but his suicide by hanging in a New York prison in August 2019 put an end to his case.